Perth Basin

The Perth Basin is a thick, elongated sedimentary basin in Western Australia. It lies beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp, representing the western limit of the much older Yilgarn Craton, and extends further west offshore. Cities and towns including Perth, Busselton, Bunbury, Mandurah and Geraldton are built over the Perth Basin.

Geological setting and evolution

The Perth Basin began forming in the Late Permian during the breakup of Gondwana, as the Australian continental plate began rifting away from the African and Indian continental plates.

During the Permian, what is now the Perth Basin was the eastern half of a rift valley that formed as the continental plates were pulled apart. This pulling apart, which continued until the Jurassic, led to the central zone subsiding as a graben allowing the sea to enter with the subsequent deposition of transgressive marine sediments. The Perth Basin architecture is dominated by listric, extensional faulting that formed during sedimentation and controlled the distribution of the sediments.

The primary mechanism for sedimentation was originally subsidence creating accommodation (space for sediments to accumulate), followed by fault extension and more recently, sediment loading, i.e. the basin continuing to subside because of the weight of sediments within it.

The eastern boundary of the main Perth Basin is the Darling Fault, topographically expressed as the Darling Scarp. Small outliers of the Perth Basin, such as the Collie Sub-basin, lie east of the Darling Fault.

Stratigraphy

Letters in brackets after the formation name represent shorthand symbols used on geological maps.

Quaternary and Recent

The Quaternary and Recent sedimentation of the Perth Basin is represented by thin, impermanent sand dune systems, biogenic limestones, sandstones and some shales deposited during the last ~20 million years and during ice ages.

Cretaceous

Jurassic

Triassic

Economic geology

Cainozoic sand dune systems are locally being mined for mineral sands, mainly rutile (a source of titanium ) and zircon, by Iluka Resources and other companies. Some of these mines are controversial for environmental reasons.

Various formations from Cainozoic to Jurassic age are economically significant freshwater aquifers. Younger aquifers are an important suppliant to reservoir water in the city of Perth and elsewhere. The Yarragadee Formation, one of the thickest formations in the basin, is a very good aquifer in the southern part of the basin.

The Perth Basin contains Permian and Jurassic coal measures, the most important being mined primarily for electricity generation in the Collie Sub-basin at Collie in the south-west of the state.

The Perth Basin is also prospective for natural gas and oil, with recent exploration wells, including Origin Energy/Arc Energy's Hovea 2, confirming large resources of natural gas, but difficult reservoir geology and characteristics have prevented the full utilisation of these energy reserves. The oil is sourced from the Kockatea Shale.

Currently, a junior minerals exploration company is exploring the basin north of Perth for glauconite to produce potash fertilizer.

Regions

Due to its shape and size, the basin has been surveyed and studied in distinctions such as offshore[3] and onshore,[4] north[5] south,[6] and central [7]

Notes

  1. Kern, A. M; Geological Survey of Western Australia (1988), The geology and hydrogeology of the superficial formations between Lancelin and Cervantes, Perth Basin (Cataby Roject) : Bore completion reports (Vol. 1 - Sites 1-18), Western Australia Geological Survey, retrieved 24 June 2017
  2. Leyland, Lucy (2011), Hydrogeology of the Leederville Aquifer, central Perth Basin, Western Australia, retrieved 24 June 2017
  3. Lee, Jen Deng; Australian National University. Dept. of Earth and Marine Sciences (2011), Seismic sequence stratigraphy of the offshore northern Perth Basin : an interpretation of the Macallan 3D Seismic Survey, retrieved 10 June 2012
  4. Crostella, A. (Angelo); Geological Survey of Western Australia; Geological Survey of Western Australia; Crostella, A (1995), An evaluation of the hydrocarbon potential of the onshore northern Perth Basin, Western Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia, Dept. of Minerals and Energy, ISBN 978-0-7309-4471-3
  5. Marshall, J. F. (John Francis); Lee, C. S. (Chao-Shing); Australia. Division of Marine Geosciences and Petroleum Geology; North Perth Basin Workshop (1988 : Perth, W.A.) (1988), North Perth Basin Workshop, Division of Marine Geosciences & Petroleum Geology, retrieved 10 June 2012
  6. Iasky, R. P. (Robert Paul); Geological Survey of Western Australia (1993), A structural study of the Southern Perth Basin, Western Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia, ISBN 978-0-7309-4480-5, ISSN 0508-4741
  7. Timms, Nicholas Eric; Olierook, H; Wilson, Moyra; Delle Piane, C; Hamilton, P; Cope, P; Stutenbecker, L (2014), Sedimentary facies analysis, mineralogy and diagenesis of the Mesozoic aquifers of the central Perth Basin, Western Australia, Department of Applied Geology, retrieved 21 October 2016

Bibliography

Further reading

See also

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